Evaluation of the use of songs and cartoons in teaching statistical concepts in on-onlined face-to-face courses. Student(s) would be involved in data management and data analysis of the results of a randomized experiment to take place at Penn State.

This project involves developing and applying new methods to incorporate non-molecular data to specify a prior for Bayesian molecular analyses that produce a distribution of possible evolutionary trees for a set of molecular sequence data.

Non-stationary models for estimating evolutionary relationships. In this project, students will develop and analyze a new test for the validity of the stationarity assumption in phylogenetics. They will also collaborate on and apply a new model of molecular evolution that allows for the amino acid distribution to vary with the level of site conservation.

Successful coursework in probability at the Stat/Math 414 level and a working knowledge of R are required.